Elizabethtown College's Bowers Writers House hosts award-winning author Hannah Abrams March 29

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Hannah Abrams, Rona Jaffe National Literary Award recipient

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (03/01/2011)(readMedia)-- Award-winning author Hannah Abrams will be at Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College Tuesday, March 29, for two events.

At 4 p.m. Abrams will discuss her own experiences related to her current autobiographical work, "The Following Sea," and at 8 p.m. she will read from the book. Both events are free and open to the public.

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams was born in the Northern Mariana Islands in 1979 and spent her childhood on a yacht with her parents in the greater South Pacific. She completed her master's degree in fine arts at University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in 2007. Currently, Abrams is working on her first book, a memoir called "The Following Sea," for which she was awarded the Rona Jaffe National Literary Award in 2010.

Abrams writes of her family, "Even though it seemed we were as close as a family could be for ten years, their marriage fell apart and our lives went off in three different directions so that later, I would look back and find my own childhood recondite, shifting. After the split, my mother had returned to her home and my father had moved across several countries, married seven more times, and had a number of other children. As for myself, I never lived with my parents again after the age of twelve. The book is a way to recover our past and trace how the strange and fantastic lives that have happened since still connect us." Currently, Abrams lives and teaches in Wilmington, N.C.

In recognition of the special contributions women writers make to our culture and society, The Rona Jaffe Foundation is giving its 16th annual Writers' Awards under a program that identifies and supports women writers of exceptional talent. The emphasis is on those in the early stages of their writing careers. This unique program offers grants to writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry to make writing time available and provide assistance for such specific purposes as child care, research and related travel costs.

It is the only national literary awards program of its kind, dedicated to supporting women writers, exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 million to emergent women writers.

Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College, 840 College Hill Lane, was created with a generous gift by Kenneth L. '59 and Rosalie E.'58 Bowers to support a culture of creative curiosity and foster a new sense of excitement and enthusiasm for intellectual diversity. The Bowers Writers House is an interdisciplinary venue for presentation, performance, expression and study. The programs-from dramatic readings to interactive panels to musical performances-offer a dynamic variety of enjoyable and informative experiences. Visit www.etown.edu/WritersHouse for more information about Bowers Writers House.

Contact: Jesse Waters at 717-361-3762

Elizabethtown College, in southeastern Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Through personal attention, creative inspiration and academic challenge, Elizabethtown College students are encouraged to expand their intellectual curiosity and are given the opportunity to become an important part of the bigger world through experiential learning-research, internships and study abroad. Elizabethtown College's overall commitment to Educate for Service is fulfilled as students are taught intellectually, socially, aesthetically and ethically for lives of service and leadership.

Visit www.etown.edu for more information about Elizabethtown College.

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